


Fire Would Carry Me Home

by pastelaliens



Category: Promare (2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Burnish Galo AU, M/M, Spoilers, basically the events of the movie except galo has a burnish awakening
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2021-01-04 06:42:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21193298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pastelaliens/pseuds/pastelaliens
Summary: A roar like nothing Galo’s ever heard before fills his ears and though he screams, though it tears his throat raw, he can’t hear it over the sound of the flames that erupt all around him, engulfing him, wrapping around his body. He expectspain. He remembers what it feels like to burn and blister under this fire— but the pain doesn’t come. The flames don’t hurt him. The way they burn feels almost like arelief. His cries falter and then stop and he’s left panting, trembling in the rubble.They stare at one another now surrounded by the flickering of their two flames. Through it all, the man hadn’t once looked away.





	Fire Would Carry Me Home

Galo had many ideas of what he’d see behind the mask of Mad Burnish’s leader, but this— a face angular, beautiful, bright in firelight— he’d never imagined. Give him eyes that are flat with cruelty or else made sharp with something sinister but don’t show him this gaze the color of dusk and filled with all the agony of the disappearing sun struggling against the night. The gun held tightly in his hand lowers just enough. Disarmed so easily, so thoroughly, without so much as a slash of a sword. That comes after, finishes what the sight of him started, but it comes as only an afterthought. 

“You’re just a kid,” Galo says, disbelieving. 

The man advances on him, emerging from the flames graceful as a dancer en pointe. Every arc of his sword cuts a piece of Galo’s armor away. “Look who’s talking,” comes the reply, clipped and pulled tight. As the enemy moves nearer, Galo takes another step back, and another, the edge of the rooftop creeping ever closer. “Get out of my way,” the man says, “or die. We Burnish don’t kill without reason.”

The sword separates him from what remains of his armor and throws Galo onto his back. His eyes are on the very tip of that blade pointed at the middle of his chest, ready to cut to his heart— and in this moment, the anger starts in him. _We Burnish don’t kill without reason_, he said, as if there’s _any_ reason it would be okay to take another person’s life. Who was _he_ to decide whether someone should live or die? All the destruction the Mad Burnish have caused over the years, all those lost in their inferno— will he not answer for them?

And as the anger rises, so does the _heat_. His breaths are sharper, pulled rattling into his lungs that feel, suddenly, as though they’re filled with smoke. His gaze slides up over that blade and stops to meet the one eye that’s been revealed to him— and that eye is wide, staring, somehow looking upon him more softly than before.

Underneath that stare, something inside of Galo awakens, as though called forth to meet the one standing over him.

A roar like nothing he’s ever heard before fills his ears and though he screams, though it tears his throat raw, he can’t hear it over the sound of the flames that erupt all around him, engulfing him, wrapping around his body. He expects _pain_. He remembers what it feels like to burn and blister under this fire— but the pain doesn’t come. The flames don’t hurt him. The way they burn feels almost like a _relief_. His cries falter and then stop and he’s left panting, trembling in the rubble.

They stare at one another now surrounded by the flickering of their two flames. Through it all, the man hadn’t once looked away.

“It seems there’s no reason for us to fight anymore,” he says. His voice is gentle. There’s a caring in it that was absent before and Galo wants to lose himself in the comfort it offers— but within him, there’s resistance. A hand is outstretched to him, the fingers clawed and encased, still, in the black Mad Burnish armor. Galo hits it away, and the small movement saps him of any strength he had remaining. He falls back, his arms no longer strong enough to prop him up, and a groan escapes his ragged throat. 

“Listen to me,” comes that voice again. Behind those words, Galo hears a whispering. He can’t understand the chattering, can’t make out what they’re saying, but he knows suddenly and completely that he _must_ hear them. The man’s voice is louder, though, and cuts through, as if understanding he has competition for Galo’s attention. “_Listen_. Freeze Force will be here soon and they won’t show even an ex-firefighter any mercy. We can protect you. You belong with us now.”

It doesn’t make sense. Why _now?_ How is it he’d gone all his life without this thing awakening in him only for it to happen here, on this rooftop, when he’d been so close to becoming a hero? More than that, he’d hoped to be able to do something for the Governor, to repay him for all he’s done for him with the capture of the world’s most wanted fugitives— but all he’s managed, instead, is to reveal himself as one of them.

But, no, not one of _them_. Not all Burnish are like this guy and his lackeys. Some Burnish only want to live their lives normally and would never start fires and risk lives. 

The sound of sirens, once far-off, are getting closer. No doubt it’s the Burning Rescue team coming to help him. And when they find him like this... He _knows_ them, knows they’d do anything for another member of the team, and that includes putting themselves at risk by harboring a Burnish— and if this man’s right, if Freeze Force is on its way, those meatheads will lock every last one of them up without so much as a second thought.

Galo pushes himself up to sitting, tilts his head back and levels a searching look on that one eye. “Can I trust you?” he asks. 

The answer is quick and sure. “Yes.”

For the team, for the other Burning Rescue members, he’ll do this.

Galo reaches out his hand. The man takes it in his armored one and pulls him easy to his feet, his touch surprisingly gentle as he steadies Galo on his weak knees. “It will be easier if they think you were killed in the fight. I can’t risk bringing you with when they take us in— you’re too inexperienced.” He seems to be talking to himself more than to Galo.

“Huh? What do you mean, when they take you in?”

“There’s no time to explain.” The man turns away from him and seems to look through the smoke. “Meis. Gueira. There’s been a change of plans. Come to me.”

Galo’s eyes go wide at the sight of the two other Mad Burnish, the ones he’d taken out before, emerging from the shadows like wraiths, their armor whole and encasing them once again. They glitter like scarabs in the inferno still writhing all around them. “Boss,” they say in unison, and then stand in wait. 

Galo should stay quiet, but that’s never really been his strong suit. “Hey, what the hell is this? I had you bastards on ice back there—”

“Enough.” Galo’s complaints stop in his throat and all he can do, instead, is glare. The leader turns to one of his men. “Meis, I want you to take him to safety. He’s one of us now. Gueira and I will be able to manage the plan on our own. We can’t risk any complications that might come from bringing him along if we want this to work. Once we have the others, we’ll meet you at the rendezvous point. Do you understand?”

There’s a short pause; this one, it seems, is the less mouthy of the two, because although he’s clearly unhappy with this change in whatever their plans are, he concedes quickly. “Yes, Boss.”

“_I_ don’t understand,” Galo interjects. He’s got some of his bluster back, which is a good sign, depending on who you ask. 

The leader turns to look at him again and Galo meets that gaze— only to watch as the eye slowly disappears again behind armor. “There’s much you don’t understand,” he says, “but you will, in time. I’ll come to you soon and explain it all.” He turns as if to leave— but then stops and glances over his shoulder. “What is your name?”

Galo straightens, puffs his chest out and crosses his arms over it. “Galo Thymos,” he answers. And then, with a challenge in his voice that comes as naturally to him as smiling: “Who are you?”

“Lio.” The name is pretty and lilting on that tongue. Lio gestures to the bulkier of his sidekicks, telling him to follow with just a motion. “Lio Fotia. Wait for me, Galo Thymos.”

With that, Lio and Gueira disappear into ash and flame, leaving Galo with the one he now knows is called Meis. They stare at one another for a moment and then Galo, with a small uncomfortable laugh, says, “About before—” 

“Save it.” Suddenly, the flames that are all around him start to bend toward Meis and then come together to form his bike. He jumps onto the seat and then reaches out a hand to Galo. “Get on. I’m going to hide you in armor so they can’t see you, at least until we’re out of sight.”

Galo nods, once, and grabs onto Meis’ forearm, swinging himself up onto the bike. He feels like a child, sitting on the back of it, Meis in his armor several times his size, but his pride can take the blow just fine. More flames close in, slide over his skin, and he can only watch in amazement until all the light is stolen from around him, an armored barrier closing him in. Underneath him, the engine roars to life, and he feels the bike begin to move. All he can do now is hold on and say his silent goodbyes and sorrys to the ones he leaves behind.

But despite what Lio thinks, Galo knows they won’t just accept that he’s dead. Whether or not they’ll try to hunt down the Mad Burnish to find him, he isn’t sure, but he knows what he’d do in their place: he’d go to the ends of the earth trying to find the person he’d lost. 

How long the two of them travel, he isn’t sure. His body is worn and tired enough that, part way through the journey, he falls asleep against Meis’ back, no doubt drooling all over his nice, shiny armor. Still, there must be some understanding there; Meis must have once awakened, too, so he knows the way it drains a person. Galo doesn’t wake until the bike goes quiet underneath him and Meis says his name. “Galo Thymos.”

He blinks rapidly a few times, turns this way and that to try to get his bearings. Something about this place seems familiar— it must be up in the mountains because here there’s no hint of humanity, not a whisper of civilization. This is the kind of peace he knows well from visiting the frozen lake when there’s too much noise in his head and too much heat in his veins. 

It seems funny to think of himself ever having been _heated_ before. Funny if only because he hasn’t quite wrapped his head around the fact that he’s a Burnish now.

Galo slides off the bike and stretches his arms over his head, groaning as his body recovers from being seated for so long. He glances over at Meis, whose armor melts off slowly and reveals the thin man underneath. Without a word, Meis starts walks and disappears into the entrance of a cave not a few paces away. Galo can do nothing except follow, leaving behind the life and bounty of nature for the empty, echoing cold of the cave. 

“Hey.” He calls out, but Meis doesn’t immediately answer and only walks deeper along the natural corridor. “Hey!” Galo runs to catch up, reaches out and grabs Meis’ arm. “I need answers.”

Meis stops walking abruptly and Galo only barely avoids crashing into him. He looks down at the hand wrapped around his upper arm and then to Galo. “Try asking questions first,” is his short answer. A man of few words, which is great for Galo who is a man of far, far too many. 

A little embarrassed, Galo lets go. “Uh, yeah, all right— Where did those other guys go? What plan were you talking about? What’s going on?”

Eventually, the cave opens up to a wide, open space, and that’s where Meis stops. He finds a spot on the floor and sits, crossing his legs underneath him. After seeing him in his armor and now seeing him here in the middle of so vast a cavern, Galo thinks he looks small. “Boss and Gueira let themselves get caught. I’m sure those Freeze Force bastards showed up eventually and took them in. If the plan went right, they’re in prison right now.”

It takes a moment for Galo to process this information— and then he (totally appropriately, in his opinion), panics. “What do you _mean_ they’re in prison?” There’s a shrillness to his voice that’s just the right frequency to send it ringing through the cave. “That’s the worst plan! That’s the last place you want to go! You guys are the most wanted criminals out there— they’re gonna be locked up forever!”

The long-suffering sigh Meis lets out is one that Galo is very familiar with; it reminds him of Remi, in a way, and that tugs a bit at his heart. “There isn’t a prison in the world that could hold our Boss. He wanted to be taken there so he could get all the other Burnish _out_— All the ones that have been arrested just for existing in the world.” He looks around the cave, dark and dank as it is. “This is where they’ll come when they’ve all broken out.” 

Galo takes a seat on the ground across from Meis, propping his elbow on his knee and his chin in his hand, hunching over with the pose. He stays like that for a while, working through this plan of theirs. And then, into the silence that had stretched between them, he says, “So… when I captured you guys earlier, was that… did you…”

The flat stare Galo gets from Meis is probably answer enough, but he replies anyway. “We let you win.”

His scoff bounces off the domed walls. “Yeah, sure… _Let_ me win…” The rest of his words are unintelligible mumblings under his breath until they die away completely to leave only silence, save for the intermittent _drip_ of water onto stone.

After a while, Meis shifts, lowers himself onto the cave’s floor. “Get some sleep,” he says, turning his back to Galo. “It’ll be awhile until we hear from them.” Then, quieter, he adds, “_If_ we hear from them.” There’s a sadness there that Galo can easily hear; his brows draw together and he wonders if maybe he should try to comfort Meis— but they don’t know each other, and it’s because of Galo that Meis isn’t there with Lio and Gueira.

So Galo takes the suggestion, staying quiet for once, and tries to get as comfortable as he can against the hard, unforgiving ground. When he closes his eyes, the image of flames dance across the back of his eyelids— but when they clear away, it’s Lio Fotia’s face he sees, its features delicate and prettier than they have any right to be. _’Wait for me, Galo Thymos,’_ he’d said, and so Galo does.

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by @Cuervito_cawcaw on twit who used this concept for a lovely piece of inktober art ❤ ty friend
> 
> will definitely update the number of chapters once i get a handle on just how much i wanna write of this!!! thank you for reading and i hope you enjoy xoxo
> 
> come find me on twit!! @paybackisawitch


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